Credit card imprinting apparatus

ABSTRACT

An imprinting apparatus is used to imprint the embossed characters on credit cards and merchant plates upon a set of paper forms. The base of the apparatus has a top having indentations and bosses to position the card, plate and form set. An imprinting head, including a roller, is slidably connected to the base. An elongated indentation in the base forms a raised ledge for the roller when the head is in the loading position, so that the roller descends near the edge of the form, preventing its top sheet from separating from the set.

O United States Patent 1191 1111 3,874,291 OReilly et a1. Apr. 1, 1975 CREDIT CARD IMPRINTING APPARATUS 3,048,097 8/1962 Miller 101/269 75 Inventors: Edward M. OReilly, New York; 3236177 2/1966 3,279,369 10/1966 Wlght Alan Heftman, Brooklyn; LBWIS 3,283,711 1l/l966 Lew o New ork all o Y 3,565,003 2/1971 Zimmer [73] Assignee: Bartizan Corporation, N York 3,673,960 7/1972 3 Ricci et a1 101/269 [22] Filed: Apr. 9, 1974 Primary ExaminerEdgar S. Burr [21] Appl' N04 459,405 Assistant Examiner- Edward M. Coven Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation of S61. Nos. 388,019, Aug. 13, 1973, 1 6 ABSTRACT I abandoned, and Ser. No. 239,281, March 29, 1972, An p n g pp r 15 used I lmprmt 116 6TH- abandoned. bossed characters on credit cards and merchant plates upon a set of paper forms. The base of the apparatus [52] U.S. Cl. 101/269 has a top having indentations and bosses to position [51] Int. Cl B41f 3/04 the card, plate and form set. An imprinting head, in- [58] Field of Search 101/269-274, cluding a roller, is slidably connected to the base. An 101/45, 56, 407 R elongated indentation in the base forms a raised ledge for the roller when the head is in the loading position, [56] References Cited so that the roller descends near the edge of the form, UNITED STATES PATENTS preventing its top sheet from separating from the set.

2,913,981 11/1959 Hermann 101/269 5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures 0 j; .9 4 L rl' 1 i ALLJ L J/ l J i L- 5 PATENTED APR 1 I 75 SHZET 1 [If 2 1. CREDIT CARD IMPRINTING APPARATUS This is a continuation application based on Application Ser. No. 388,019 filed on Aug. 13, 1973 now abandoned and on Application Ser. No. 239,281 filed on Mar. 29, 1972 now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At the present time credit cards are widely used to make purchases in a variety of retail establishments such as restaurants, department stores and gasoline stations. Generally, the credit cards consist ofa small rectangular plastic card having embossed characters with information such as the credit card number and the name and address of the purchaser. These credit cards, along with merchant plates," are placed in a printing apparatus which imprints the information from the credit card and merchant plate onto a joined pile of forms, i.e., a form set." The merchant plate generally is a rectangular metal card having embossed characters providing the number, name and address of the retail establishment making the sale. Each form set generally consists of a number of copies of printed paper having blank spaces and with carbon paper interleaved between the copies so that the customer, the retail establishment and the credit card company all receive copies having the information imprinted from the credit card and the merchant platev Various types of printing apparatus have been developed for use in imprinting the information embossed on the credit card and the merchant plate onto the forms. One type of such imprinting apparatus consists of a relatively large and immobile device which is positioned on a table and having a roller mechanism which rolls over the back of the form. The credit card and the merchant plate have previously been positioned in the de' vice on the bottom of the forms. Such imprinting apparatus is too heavy and bulky to be readily carried, so that the credit cards must be taken from the purchaser and brought to the apparatus. In a large restaurant or retail establishment this procedure may cause a considerable delay resulting in wasting the time of the sales personnel or waiter and the time of the customer.

A solution to the problem of having to carry the credit cards to the machine would be to make the apparatus sufficiently light and portable so that it may be carried by the waiter or sales person and the forms im printed at the table or counter. However, if the existing imprinting apparatus is simply scaled down and made of lighter weight material, they may not satisfactorily function. It would be too flimsy to resist the abuse encountered in daily usage and would not provide sufficient roller pressure on the credit card and merchant plate to provide a clear imprinting of their information upon the forms.

It is consequently the objective of the present invention to provide an imprinting apparatus for the imprinting of embossed information on credit cards and merchant plates upon forms in which: l) the apparatus is sufficiently small in size and light in weight so that it may be readily carried from place to place by waiters, sales personnel and other users of the apparatus: (2) a roller causes sufficient pressure on the embossed side of the credit card and the merchant plate so that their embossed characters are clearly printed on the forms; (3) the construction of the apparatus is specifically adapted to prevent the tearing of the form-set apart during the imprinting operation and specifically to prevent the roller from tearing the top form from the other forms as it moves over the pile ofjoined forms: (4) the apparatus will not displace the forms from their position during the printing operation: (5) the apparatus will accept forms of different thicknesses, that is, having different numbers of copies and having different paper thicknesses, without requiring the operator to make any adjustmentto the apparatus: (6) the apparatus will accept two different sized merchant plates without requiring the operator to make any adjustment of the apparatus: (7) the apparatus is sufficiently rugged so that it will have a relatively long life and does not require lubrication or other maintenance; and (8) the unit is of sufficient size to allow imprinting the top fiveeighths inch of the form, which position of imprinting may be necessary for optical scanning of the forms: (9) the unit is relatively inexpensive.

Further objectives of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description describing a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the imprinting apparatus of the present invention in its loading position;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 but with the apparatus in its printing position;

FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view, taken along line 3-3 of FIG. I and looking in the direction of the arrows; V

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view, taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3, and looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIGS. 5 through 8 are partial cross-sectional views similar to FIG. 3 showing a sequence of operations of the roller.

FIG. 9 is an internal side view of an end member of the imprinting head with the other parts removed for clarity of illustration.

As shown in FIG. 1, the imprinting apparatus of the present invention includes a base 11 and a slidable imprinting head 10, which is a slidable carriage. The base 11 includes a first end wall 12, a top 13, a first side wall 14 and a second side wall 15 and a second end wall 16. The top is generally flat but has a first recessed area 17 adapted to receive credit cards and a second recessed area 18 having within it two posts 19 and 19, such as screw or revet heads, to receive and hold the merchant plate 20.

As shown in FIG. 4, the base 11 may be formed from a solid plastic or alternatively may be formed so that it is hollow and has a bottom covering plate. If hollow, the base should have supporting ribs under the card holding indentations. A suitable plastic is one which is injection moldable, will not easily scratch or fade in color, and is relatively rigid, for example, a plastic such as an acetal resin or an ABS resin. The sidewalls l4 and 15 having elongated slots, respectively 21 and 22, which provide a holding surface 21' and 22 upon which a flange of the roller cover slides.

As shown in FIG. 4, the imprinting head 10 consists ofa first end member 23 and a symmetric opposite second end member 24. Each of the end members 23 and 24 has a hole therethrough, respectively 25 and 26, and a bottom flange, respectively 27 and 28, for holding flat nylon pads 29 and 30. The nylon pads 29 and 30 act as dry lubricants so that the roller cover may be slid firmly and yet without great pressure along the slots 21 and 22. A centralmember 31 is held between the side members 23 and 24. The central member 31 has two internal descending flange portions 32 and 33 whose bottom face is curved.

A plastic resin roller 37 has its internal axial hole mounted upon a fixed metal shaft 34. The roller 37 has sufficient clearance so that it freely rotates upon shaft 34 and cannot move sideways as it is held between the descending flanges 32 and 33. Preferably the shaft is coated with a dry lubricant such as polytetrafluoroethylene, for example, Teflon, a trademark of Du- Pont of Wilmington, Delaware.

The shaft has, at its two ends, internally threaded bores into which are screwed two screws'39 and 40. The shoulders of the screw heads of screws 39 and 40 rest on washers 38 and 38 which are slidable on the recessed lips about slots or holes 25 and 26. The holes 25 and 26 are elongated in the vertical direction to permit upward and downward movement of the shaft 34. For that purpose the ends 36 and 36' of the shaft 34 are of smaller diameter than the remainder of the shaft. The shaft 34, near its two ends, is normally pressed downward by leaf springs 41 and 42. Those leaf springs are held down by bosses 43 and 44 integral with the end member 24. Each of the end members has a curved bottom face which in shape is an integral one-half bushing, 63 and 64, which positions the shaft 34 during the imprinting operation.

The operation of the printing apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIGS. -8. The loading position is shown in FIG. 5. The roller 37 is moved, before imprinting, into its own pocket 60, consisting of the ledge 45 and the sidewalls 61 and 62. This pocket positions the roller before it begins the imprinting operation. The roller 37 is lifted upon a ledge 45 which is raised above the bottom of an elongated indentation 46, which indentation is parallel with the axis of the roller. This indentation 46 and ledge 45 permits the roller 37, under spring pressure from the leaf springs 41 and 42, to first vertically descend or snap down upon the form 47 and only then to start to roll over the form. The indentation 46 and ledge 45 are across the length of the roller 37. The form is held by an end shoulder portion 48 and two side shoulder portions 49 and 50 of the base. Advantageously this snap down action allows the roller 37 to roll over the form and prevents destruction of the form by being pushed in front of the roller.

The credit card 55, along with the merchant plate, has previously been positioned on the top of the base, with their embossed characters face upwards. As shown in FIG. 6, when the roller housing is pushed in the direction of the arrow to commence the imprinting operation, the roller has started off the ledge 45 and onto the form 47. The roller, shown in FIG. 7, then adventageously pushes the form 47 downward into the indentation 46 so that thetop sheet of the form set is not pushed off from the other sheets of the form set.

The roller, as shownin FIG. 8, will then press the form set onto the credit card and the merchant plate. The credit card and form set are then removed and the imprinting head is returned to its starting position.

The end wall 16 is one wall of a raised portion 51 of the base. A groove 54, across the base, is formed by the inner wall 52 of raised portion 51 and a shoulder 53. The groove 54 permits the apparatus to be held by the thumb of one hand, with the other fingers of the holding hand being placed on the bottom of the base.

Modifications may be made in the subject invention within the scope of the sub-joined claims. For example, the roller and the shaft may be formed as an integral member or as permanently attached members. As another example, coil springs may be used instead of leaf springs to urge the shaft downward.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for use with cards having embossed characters thereon and comprising means for imprinting the characters upon forms, said means including a base member having a pair of slotted sidewalls, an imprinting head, a shaft fitted within said imprinting head,

a roller rotatably disposed about an intermediate lengthof said shaft, the imprinting head being mounted for longitudinal travel over said base member and including a housing having end segments extending downwardly and along said sidewalls to a level intermediate thereof, each of the segments having a bottom flange projecting inwardly for sliding engagement with the adjacent sidewall, said segments being formed with elongated openings freely supporting the shaft for vertical movement with respect to said base, spring means interacting with the shaft to resiliently urge said roller downwardly, said base member having an upper surface formed with a channel having a bottom formed with depressed surface portions adapted for removably holding said cards in a printing position, said channel including an end recess for accommodating said roller in a rest position, and an elongated indentation formed along the channel bottom and extending normal to said sidewalls, the indentation being located intermediate the end recess and the depressed portions for receiving a leading end portion of said forms.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 including a dry lubricant pad resting atop said flange for facilitating the indentation includes a sloped surfaces.

l =l l= 

1. An apparatus for use with cards having embossed characters thereon and comprising means for imprinting the characters upon forms, said means including a base member having a pair of slotted sidewalls, an imprinting head, a shaft fitted within said imprinting head, a roller rotatably disposed about an intermediate length of said shaft, the imprinting head being mounted for longitudinal travel over said base member and including a housing having end segments extending downwardly and along said sidewalls to a level intermediate thereof, each of the segments having a bottom flange projecting inwardly for sliding engagement with the adjacent sidewall, said segments being formed with elongated openings freely supporting the shaft for vertical movement with respect to said base, spring means interacting with the shaft to resiliently urge said roller downwardly, said base member having an upper surface formed with a channel having a bottom formed with depressed surface portions adapted for removably holding said cards in a printing position, said channel including an end recess for accommodating said roller in a rest position, and an elongated indentation formed along the channel bottom and extending normal to said sidewalls, the indentation being located intermediate the end recess and the depressed portions for receiving a leading end portion of said forms.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1 including a dry lubricant pad resting atop said flange for facilitating the travel of said imprinting head.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the indentation extends across the width of said channel.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the indentation is formed of rectilinear surfaces.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the indentation includes a sloped surfaces. 